windows

This is such a good tip that I better save it right here for future use. To hide all the Linux-like dot folders (folders with names starting with a period, or full stop), open Command Prompt and run:

ATTRIB +H /s /d C:\.*

This will fix all the current folders, but any new ones generated later will not be hidden. You'll have to re-run this script (maybe automated as a Windows Scheduled Task?).

A script that ran happily for about a year suddenly stopped working last week. From the stack trace, it was apparent that the script was stumbling on Python's smtplib>sendmail command. Here's the error:

OSError: [WinError 10013] An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions

The offending code:

if you frequently have to toggle between two network adapters in Windows, it can become a hassle to keep opening the Control Panel widget, right-click, disable/enable adapter, etc. For example, you may want to turn off your wired connection and connect to wifi, then switch back to wired, etc.

I find that I frequently (many times daily) have to send files as email attachments. Depending on the task, the files can be located in a half-dozen or so places on the Windows file system. I found myself browsing (from Outlook's "Attach File" function) to my Documents, Downloads, Desktop, or one of several network drives for the file I just saved there a few seconds ago.

I recently had to upgrade a Windows IIS Server running PHP 5.5 to PHP 7.1.1. I ran across this excellent blog post which got me 99% of the way through the process.

Some things I had to do additionally/differently:

This post outlines a method I came up with to use a single AutoHotKey script to auto-load any number of scripts in a sub-folder. It also allows every script to have its own autoexec section, and to hook into a timer for event-type functionality.

AutoHotKey scripts that are 'persistent' need to be loaded into memory by Windows just one time. If you have several of them to load, you can get them all individually, but you end up with a system tray full of little green 'H' icons.

AutoHotKey is a powerful Windows automation tool, capable of doing pretty much anything you could do yourself on your PC. I have a number of scripts I run regularly (or always have running) to speed up my work and/or make it more accurate and efficient.

One of my favorite scripts responds to the key combination of Ctrl-Alt-0 (that's a zero). When I press that combo, a couple things happen:

1) First, the script checks to see if the machine is connected to WiFi, and if so, grabs the name of the WiFi's SSID.

Background

Network drives allow multiple users on the same network to have acccess to the shared folders/files. However, if you have two different sets of network drives (at work and at home, for example), it can be a hassle to manually map drives when your computer 'resumes' on the new network.

I recently had a need to turn on Bitlocker encryption (in Windows 8.1) for a 1.8 TB external hard drive. After three workdays (more than 24 hours), the drive was claiming it was only 5.2% completed with the encryption step. I searched all over and didn't find an answer, but a colleague recommended plugging the usb drive into a USB 3.0 compliant port, vs. a USB 2.0 port. I had that option available on my machine, and as I'm writing this (about three hours later), the drive is about 67% encrypted. It's working! 

When I tried to install Autohotkey 1.1.20.1 recently on a Windows 8.1 64bit machine, the installer failed. It 'ran' ok, but on the installer splash screen, none of the buttons or links would 'do' anything. I tried the "Express Installation" and "Custom Installation" buttons and the "Read license" and "Extract to..." links. I tried running the installer as an Administrator.